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Friday, 29 April 2016

Thinking big about haze in Thailand

Michael Shafer, director of the Warm Heart Foundation offers some thoughtful comments on Thailand's version of the regional haze issue. I cut the following comments related to biochar from the article published by 'The Nation' newspaper. The full article is available here.

The problem is hundreds of thousands of tonnes of waste corn stalk that
farmers have no option but to burn in order to clear their fields for
the next crop. CP can teach farmers how to turn their corn stalk into a
valuable product: biochar. Biochar, a pure form of charcoal, is made
using a process called "pyrolysis" that produces no smoke, no black
carbon, and virtually no greenhouse gases. The production of biochar is
also carbon-negative, meaning that it removes CO2 from the atmosphere,
reversing global warming.

To encourage farmers to make biochar, CP can include the purchase of
the biochar made from contract corn stalks in the same contracts as for
the purchase of corn kernel.

CP also owns large pig farms where it has manure management problems.
Biochar is an excellent absorbent, capable of absorbing huge quantities
of pig urine. It also dramatically reduces smells by adsorbing the
ammonia and other noxious gases produced by pig urine and manure that
make it smell so foul. Conveniently, mixing biochar with pig urine and
manure creates a very effective organic fertiliser.

At the start of a growing season CP can distribute the biochar
fertiliser to farmers in lieu of distributing synthetic fertiliser as
they often do now. The reduction in synthetic fertiliser costs will fund
biochar purchases, while the biochar fertiliser will improve farmers'
soils and yields because it provides many more benefits than synthetics,
including the capacity to retain water. Biochar fertilisers have the
added benefit that biochar "locks up" pesticides in the soil. This
reduces the risk of toxins entering the food chain and reduces the
amount of toxic run-off from fields.

Taking such a "life-cycle" approach - from field waste and manure to
fertiliser and feed - CP joins the ranks of a corporate elite, companies
that make environmental sustainability part of the way they do
business, and distinguishes itself from the majority of companies that
talk about the environment without making it part of business
operations. Such public relations is literally priceless, because it
cannot be bought, but will serve CP well as it deals with consumer
pressure groups in Europe.

If CP offers such a solution to the "corn crisis", it secures all five
of the values we seek to protect. Farmers continue to get corn
contracts and now get contracts for biochar made from their corn waste.
Public health improves because every tonne of corn waste that is
"pyrolysed" keeps six kilograms of smoke from being released into the
air. The economy of the North gets a boost because the poor have more
money in their pockets which, being poor, they spend immediately. The
Thai economy can continue to grow as consumers do not face higher meat
prices, chicken exports do not fall, and thousands of jobs and billions
of baht of economic activity do not move to Myanmar. Thailand sharply
reduces its national carbon footprint as the reduction in field burning
cuts black carbon releases and the rise in biochar production cuts GHG
emissions and sequesters three tonnes of CO2 for every tonne of biochar
produced...."
Michael Shafer is director of the Warm Heart Foundation based in A Phrao, Chiang Mai.

There is a overlapping story here for the annual haze issues emanating
from forestry and plantation activity in Indonesia (some of it
controlled by Malaysian & Singaporean interests). Check out 13
previous posts on the haze issue and its solutions here.

1 comment:

Stuart Boyd
said...

This is a wonderful idea, but with all the will in the world, it is HOT air, unless it gets translated into Thai, and published in Thai every newspaper, with editorial opinion as well. This article should be published through out the world,as it shows what Big Business can do to resolve some of their misdeamenours. Stuart Boyd, an advocat for solving haze problems and biochar